Large Eddy Simulation of near-bed pipelines in oscillatory flow

A series of unsteady, three-dimensional numerical simulations of the incompressible, oscillatory flow around a near-bed pipeline is presented. A flow at Reynolds number equal to Reαo=20,000 with respect to the oscillatory amplitude and maximum oscillation velocity is considered. The ratio of the pipeline diameter to the oscillatory amplitude examined is in the range of D/αo=0.1−1.0, with the pipeline located at a distance of G/D=0.0−1.0. The numerical simulations are conducted by means of Large Eddy Simulation (LES), using Cartesian grids. The presence of solid boundaries is taken into account by means of the Immersed Boundary method. For turbulence modelling, two different subgrid scale models are tested, the classical Smagorinsky and the Filtered Structure Function (FSF) models. The results in terms of vortex shedding are compared against previously reported data demonstrating very good agreement. Vortex shedding patterns are presented, indicating suppression of the boundary layer separation of the lower side of the pipeline for gap lengths G/αo≤1/20. The characteristic values of the hydrodynamic forcing in terms of the drag and lift coefficients and the three significant oscillation frequencies extracted from the temporal variation of the forcing signals are associated with the flow regimes and wall proximity. The pipeline experiences hydrodynamic loading which is found to oscillate with the external flow frequency along the direction of the flow. Along the wall-normal direction, the forces exerted on the pipe oscillate with several frequencies of high power spectral density. However, the three significant oscillation frequencies of the lift coefficient appear to have almost constant values. The presented results can provide trends for design purposes in similar flow conditions for a wide range of engineering applications.